DRINKING WATER
Why Planning Is The Hero Of AMI Deployment
Thorough planning, accurate data, and strong communication are the keys to successful AMI deployments, preventing costly disruptions and ensuring technology delivers long-term operational and customer service value.
DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS
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Winter Is Coming. Are Your Water Tanks Ready?
When winter is coming, water utilities gear up to battle the cold and its impact on their distribution systems. What happens to water tanks during the winter and how can you protect your tanks?
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Hydroinformatics 101: Intro To Water Optimization And Efficiency
Hydroinformatics offers a fresh perspective that is enabling communities around the world to tackle age-old problems in new ways and with a bigger toolset.
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City Solves Reliability And Maintenance Problems For WTP Hypo Feeds
A municipal water quality manager reports replacement of sodium hypochlorite (hypo) vacuum feeder units with a more advanced type at one water treatment plant (WTP) has helped allow for continued reliability for chlorination.
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Early Leak Detection Program: Improving Water Systems For Future Generations
Read about a trial for the City of Gold Coast designed to find a system that could sharpen leak detection capability with a small margin of error.
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AMI Gets Faster With LoRaWAN® Class B Specification
A smart city effectively harnesses and maximizes the use of digital technology and data analytics to enhance urban management, make well-informed choices, and elevate the standard of living for its inhabitants.
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AMERICAN Spiral-Welded Steel Pipe And Big Easy Flood Control
If you think Hurricane Katrina was the first time New Orleans suffered major flood damage, think again. Flooding has been as much a part of New Orleans’ 300-year history as jazz, jambalaya and French Quarter juke joints.
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Minnetonka, MN Pilots Acoustic Pipe Assessment Prior To Road Resurfacing
A Minnesota suburb used non-invasive acoustic technology to assess an aging water main before a 20-year road construction moratorium. This critical data allowed them to confidently prioritize pipe renewals and better manage their infrastructure budget.
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Standing Tall In Sopchoppy: A Storage Tank Built To Last
Deep in the Apalachicola National Forest in the Florida panhandle where U.S. Route 319 makes a crank-handle turn lies the community of Sopchoppy. It’s an Indian name that means “dark water” or “twisted river.” In fact, the Sopchoppy River is one of the most pristine in the whole state and it attracts a crowd for boating, kayaking, and fishing.
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Compact ST75 Thermal Mass Flow Meter Measures Natural Gas, CO2 And Waste Gases In Breweries
The versatile, green-friendly ST75 air/gas flow meter from Fluid Components International (FCI) accurately and reliably measures natural gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), and mixed waste gases in small line sizes to optimize brewing fermentation processes, product quality, and overall plant efficiency.
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Immediate Results In Veolia Lyon, France
Ten Enigma3m loggers were installed in less than two hours on sites located in the city of Lyon. The devices are equipped with a roaming SIM allowing the Enigma3M to select the best GSM network. Some holes were created in the chamber for fitting the aerial and optimizing the GSM data for transmission.
DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES
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Optimizing Brine Flow In A Geothermal Power Plant1/27/2022
Different flow meter technologies were used in this geothermal power plant to monitor and measure brine. However, these traditional technologies failed. That’s where Panametrics PT900 Portable Ultrasonic Flowmeter was able to help.
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Process Optimization For Flow Measurement4/29/2021
The Saalfeld-Rudolfstadt Association in Germany must rely on cutting-edge technologies that optimize flow measurement in order to allow for smooth processes and supply 82,000 inhabitants with clean drinking water.
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Application Note: Ozone Measurement In Potable Water3/1/2010
Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent that can be used to destroy the organic compounds that affect the taste and odor of potable water. Environmental concerns have led to increased use of ozone because, unlike chlorine, it does not form hazardous by-products.
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Dosing Of Sodium Hypochlorite Solution For Drinking Water Disinfection9/22/2022
A water purveyor was in urgent need of a chemically resistant flow instrumentation with a long life of service that allowed reliable and long-term stable dosing of the sodium hypochlorite solution.
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Flexible Expansion Joints Provide Protection For Pipelines Subject To Subtle Or Sudden Movement12/7/2020
Flex-Tend flexible expansion joints have a proven record of providing protection for pipelines subject to subtle or sudden movement. As with all products used in the water and wastewater industry, protection is optimized with the selection of the proper assembly incorporated into a sound design. This paper is intended to provide assistance in both of these areas.
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Fountain Testing Solutions10/29/2021
Accurate fountain (dampening) solution concentration control is essential for consistent, high-quality results in lithography. Low concentration can cause drying on the non-image area of the plate resulting in tinting, scumming, blanket piling, etc. High concentrations, on the other hand, bring about over-emulsification of the ink. This results in weakening of color strength and changes in ink rheology (body and flow properties). Correct concentration will allow the non-image areas of the plate to be appropriately wetted.
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Drinking Water Testing By Ion Chromatography Using Ultrapure Water9/29/2022
This application note demonstrates the suitability of ultrapure water produced by a Milli-Q IQ 7000 water purification system for the IC analyses of inorganic ions and DBPs in drinking water.
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Groundwater Remediation12/1/2020
Good quality groundwater is an important natural resource. It provides drinking water for the public as well as process water for industrial applications. Groundwater can become contaminated through a number of ways including improper handling of process chemicals or disposal of wastes.
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Solution For Algae Blooms12/17/2015
Harmsco® Filtration Products is pleased to offer a solution to the ever increasing blue-algae blooms in water sources. A multi-barrier approach is necessary to physically remove intact (algae and cyanobacteria) before they rupture in the treatment process and then remove extracellular cyanobacteria through adsorption.
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Reduced Bore Electromagnetic Flowmeter10/29/2021
Being able to accurately measure both the quantity and rate of water passing through a water distribution system is crucial to gain an informed understanding of overall efficiency. As such, achieving a measurement that is exact as possible can have a significant impact on key areas. This includes supply planning, maintenance, resource deployment, leakage detection and the overall environment.
LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER
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Setting Global Standards: Inside North America's Only Full-Scale UV Disinfection Validation Facility
Portland's industry-leading facility reaches 100 reactor validations in 23 years.
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Given the maturation of sensor technology, the scientific and operational hurdles to portable lead analysis are somewhat surprising — but surmountable.
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Bathymetric modeling maps underwater terrain. It also helps guide planning, prevent hazards, and build climate-resilient infrastructure.
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The data center industry stands at a critical juncture. As facilities scale to meet exponential computing demands, water consumption has emerged as a defining operational challenge. Traditional approaches focused on water efficiency are no longer sufficient.
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When pregnant women drink water that comes from wells downstream of sites contaminated with PFAS, known as “forever chemicals,” the risks to their babies’ health substantially increase, a new study found. These risks include the chance of low birth weight, preterm birth, and infant mortality.
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Beaverton Water Division’s transition to Kamstrup AMI and acoustic leak detection is modernizing meter reading, reducing infrastructure costs, improving leak identification, and streamlining operations as deployment progresses.
ABOUT DRINKING WATER
In most developed countries, drinking water is regulated to ensure that it meets drinking water quality standards. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers these standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
Drinking water considerations can be divided into three core areas of concern:
- Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
- Drinking water treatment of source water
- Distribution of treated drinking water to consumers
Drinking Water Sources
Source water access is imperative to human survival. Sources may include groundwater from aquifers, surface water from rivers and streams and seawater through a desalination process. Direct or indirect water reuse is also growing in popularity in communities with limited access to sources of traditional surface or groundwater.
Source water scarcity is a growing concern as populations grow and move to warmer, less aqueous climates; climatic changes take place and industrial and agricultural processes compete with the public’s need for water. The scarcity of water supply and water conservation are major focuses of the American Water Works Association.
Drinking Water Treatment
Drinking Water Treatment involves the removal of pathogens and other contaminants from source water in order to make it safe for humans to consume. Treatment of public drinking water is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Common examples of contaminants that need to be treated and removed from water before it is considered potable are microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals and radionuclides.
There are a variety of technologies and processes that can be used for contaminant removal and the removal of pathogens to decontaminate or treat water in a drinking water treatment plant before the clean water is pumped into the water distribution system for consumption.
The first stage in treating drinking water is often called pretreatment and involves screens to remove large debris and objects from the water supply. Aeration can also be used in the pretreatment phase. By mixing air and water, unwanted gases and minerals are removed and the water improves in color, taste and odor.
The second stage in the drinking water treatment process involves coagulation and flocculation. A coagulating agent is added to the water which causes suspended particles to stick together into clumps of material called floc. In sedimentation basins, the heavier floc separates from the water supply and sinks to form sludge, allowing the less turbid water to continue through the process.
During the filtration stage, smaller particles not removed by flocculation are removed from the treated water by running the water through a series of filters. Filter media can include sand, granulated carbon or manufactured membranes. Filtration using reverse osmosis membranes is a critical component of removing salt particles where desalination is being used to treat brackish water or seawater into drinking water.
Following filtration, the water is disinfected to kill or disable any microbes or viruses that could make the consumer sick. The most traditional disinfection method for treating drinking water uses chlorine or chloramines. However, new drinking water disinfection methods are constantly coming to market. Two disinfection methods that have been gaining traction use ozone and ultra-violet (UV) light to disinfect the water supply.
Drinking Water Distribution
Drinking water distribution involves the management of flow of the treated water to the consumer. By some estimates, up to 30% of treated water fails to reach the consumer. This water, often called non-revenue water, escapes from the distribution system through leaks in pipelines and joints, and in extreme cases through water main breaks.
A public water authority manages drinking water distribution through a network of pipes, pumps and valves and monitors that flow using flow, level and pressure measurement sensors and equipment.
Water meters and metering systems such as automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) allows a water utility to assess a consumer’s water use and charge them for the correct amount of water they have consumed.